Photo Shoot with Berghaus on Helvellyn

Five go Mad on a Mountain (and a Dog)

Photo Shoot with Berghaus 

On Sunday I was asked to go along as the safety person to accompany the Berghaus photo shoot on Helvellyn. 

We met in a very wet and windy Glenridding with the Athletes and local photographer Stuart Holmes from Keswick. 

While we drank tea, ate cake and waited for the strong winds and rain to disappear we managed to catch up with Steve Birkinshaw, Charlie Sharpe, Jo Zakrzewski all world class elite athletes and looking to take part in the Dragons Back Race in 2015. 

Stuart got into the swing of things early on as we left the village making the guys warm up by running up and down the road. 

After this we set off to the hills now covered with a new layer of snow still with strong winds but easing later in the day. 

Only two days before I had been up Helvellyn as part of the safety checks for the Lakes Mountain 42  organised by NAV4 Adventure  in +19C in shorts and T Shirt with Keela my dog. 

24 Hours later the weather had changed abit and was now -2C and 35mph winds.

Our day was forecast for continuing strong winds rain and snow clearing in the afternoon. Charlie is know for wearing shorts and managed to stay like this all day. 

Jo sadly had to leave early her excuse was that Poldark was on at 9 and she need ed time to get ready for all the smouldering from the TV.

We carried on with Stuart and Angela, from Berghaus, directing the runners all over dressing them like a doting mother and looking after Keela

 

We were fortunate with the weather later in the day. 

Notice the wind on Ullswater making a very un-natural looking break point near Outward Bound.

Our day topped safely out on the summit for the obligatory summit selfies and 

We then continued Northwards along the ridge  avoiding the cornice and the areas of small avalanches. capturing the fantastic light at the end of the day

A great day with a safe circuit of one of the iconic fells in the Lake District with a great group of talented world class athletes getting ready to take on further challenges. 

I am able to help out with safety cover for any of your events worldwide do contact me.

Copeland Chase

The Copeland Chase 

For £9 what can go wrong?

At the last minute I decided to enter a revived classic tradional Mounatin Orienteering event hosted by West Cumbria Orienteering Club in the little visited fells around Kirkland. 

                                    An early start and with a forecast getting better thro the day I met up with John

the orgainser and registered, did the usual faffing and then was given a map to set off.

Walking to the start I was trying to work out the scale dimensions and a 1:15000 with 5m contour interval with O type colours took a little time to get used to.
In the end it took a looong time to get used to as I cleared, set off from the start and then found the out-run track runnable I got my head down and shuffled quickly.





Its unusal not to be flogging up a steep hill in the first 1km and I was going quicker than ususal. A bloke from WCOC came past and I sort of tagged onto the back of him. The Plateau arrived with a fence and jumped it and shot off into some tussocks not unlike on the OMM a few weeks previous. I marched on thro and started to drop quickly. I saw Steve Heaton and Kaaren Nash behind me and this spurred me on.

I then stopped at the coll I thought was my No. 1 and realised I was facing the wrong direction nothing fitted, so i did the classic thing when in a rush, of trying to make it fit!!. I thought I would give up on No. 1 and just go round the others, not dibbing.
I set off downhill to number 2 and then realised the sheepfold fast approaching was in the wrong vallet when I unfolded the map to have a look for a line to No. 3!!!!!

 OOh long uphill back to 2 where I had just been stood!!!! (the kites were a little flattened)

So a day of pics and fun and meeting some old and new friends.

All the pics can be found here on my Google + page 

If you want an original please contact me. 

 

A great day out and an expereince I can share 

Results can be found here 

All for £9 Si dibber hire , comprehensive map, and FREE tea and cake at the end.
What could go wrong?

Hope to see you on the next one? 

Somewhere!!!!!

OS and Silva Navigation App

OS and Silva two of the worlds renowned names in Navigation have teamed up with an App and Map approach to Mountain Safety. I was shown the app at Keswick Mountain Festival and when it came out on Android I downloaded it to test it out. Its very simple and works well. I was out on a Navigation training course yesterday in a very wet Langdale vally with James and Kathryn from Dorset. We were looking at traditional map and compass techniques and I showed them this app to help compliment their new skills.


We had a great day out in the warm rain in the Langdale Valley and James and Kathryn helped me to realise what I take for granted in my work as an International Mountain Leader whilst working in our fantastic scenery in the Lakes. They took lots of photos and were awed by the landscape and will hopefully come back to the lakes. We finished off with a liquid debrief at the National Trust run Stickle Barn Tavern in the sunshine. 

.http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/blog/2014/06/our-os-locate-app-goes-worldwide/ 

Google Play link https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.ordnancesurvey.oslocate.android

Itunes link https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/os-locate/id810024913

It is worth noting that the App is there to back up Map and Compass skills not to replace it.  Map and compass skills need to be practised 

If you wanting to get out and practice Navigation get in touch. 1:1 and groups are easily accommodated You cant not learn something from it.

More Mile Cheviot 2 Fell Shoes

I have been trying out a pair of More Mile Cheviot 2 Fell Shoes recently. I bought them as an alternative to the usual Norman Walsh Fell Shoes I have worn for years. Being a Bolton lad I used to pop into see Norman and have a chat with him about the fell scene sometimes I would buy a pair of shoes as well. I have been spoilt coming from Bolton home of a few famous shoe brands and runners including Walsh, Reebok, Brasher who worked with Reebok; Martin Jones, Paul Dugdale Horwich RMI, Mike Freary Bolton UH, Ron Hill produced the Rivington Pike shoe named after the oldest fell race in the calender.

So these came as an alternative to a trusted brand to try out now in the Northern Lakes where I now live and work as a full time outdoor instructor and with Nav4 helping to organise and with training courses for Mountain Marathons, Hill and Adventure racingThis is the mark two version and comes in several eye catching colour designs. The lacing is a standard eyelet lacing system that has been tried and tested and cant really be faulted. It secures the foot well and can be adapted along its length to fit differing foot widths. 

The sole unit is deep lugged and is useful on the northern fells where the ground is not so rocky. These would be ideal for Howgills, Southern Uplands, Cross Country, Orienteering type areas of event. I found them very slippy on wet rock, but most sole units and compounds are. They cleaned reasonably well enhancing the grip over this sort of terrain. 

The midsole offers good cushioning but not to much for contouring, more testing is needed here to give a better picture for myself. 

The toe box is good for me in that its open and rounded and has plenty of space with a toe protector over the mesh upper. This drains very well going through boggy ground. 

The insole stays in place even when wet very handy and gives a confident feel to the shoe. 

   

 In this picture on the left you can see the tongue rolling that occurs to frequently, this could easily be rectified with a simple loop to centralise the tongue. Another thing that I found on buying my original pair was that they are lasted very small. I normally take a 41(7) but on trying them on I had to return them and get an 8. I am not sure if half sizes are available? The 8 means that the shoe rolls a little and is slighty floppy across the toe cut area on me.


During this day out I saw another bloke running up in the same pair as I was coming down the hill with my dog back toward Mungrisedale. I never got a chance to ask what he thought of them.

 In summary this is a good shoe that with a little more time from me on the fells may be more of a grower on me. I will get out more and evaluate further. The price is right  

Night Navigation In June

 I was asked by Ian from Striding Ahead to help him with his preparation for his ML assessment for some Night Navigation Practice; in June! Its not dark till 11.30ish so we opted for an overnight camp also.
 Gary Fletcher came along also and we met in the Lake District for our mini adventure.

 We set off into a fantastic warm evening toward our overnight campsite via few sneaky and not so sneaky features. Ian and Gary did really well as we had twisted the emphasis of the Navigation to help delivery. 

The Valley below us got smaller as ascended the night sky got redder a great sign for the day ahead also. This gave us chance to fit some mortar around the navigation brickwork. 

This mortar included flora, fauna, weather interpretation, coaching methods etc all vital for a broad knowledge base for mountain leaders.

We arrived at our campsite around 02.00 in the morning after a great night finding some difficult features. Ian set up his tent and went straight bed to wake up earlyto go for another walk and get some more pics

Gary and I opted for the bivvy bag approach on such a warm night. NB condensation in the morning after a warm night still can dampen your kit. Strange occurrences happen as the hot days over the last week had depleted the water supplies from the river. 

Another of the mortar issues was campcraft and clean water. I had been looking at Sawyer Water filters for a trip to the source of the Ganges later in the year. This would of been ideal for the dribble of water we found at the outlet. Then today a colleague Paul Lewis of Peak Mountaineering was talking about them. I will definatley look them up now after a serendipitous moment.  Could of done with a whole range of their products; sun cream and bug spray!

                                        Day two dawned bright and we off again at 08.00 on another mini adventure.Working our way back to the cars, the weather was kind to us. We even managed to save a young herdwick from certain death after being stuck in pool of muddy water. A very smelly affair trying to pull her out, she managed to wobble away on unsteady legs to find some grass. Good Karma?

 We had a great mini adventure in the lakes and covered a lot of topics. Please let me know if you have an adventure in mind.